Challs
Challs was good at launching its cleaning products but not so good at getting them noticed - until it turned to design to reinvent its core brand and registered a 35 per cent sales increase.
Background
Challs International is a small, Suffolk based business that began manufacturing cleaning products in the early 1990s. The business owned several brands, the most successful of which was Buster.
Problem
Sales were satisfactory, but, says Challs MD Graham Burchell, 'supermarkets cull brands because, if there are too many, customers get confused and don’t spend as much. New buyers tasked with cutting brands would delist us, often without even telling us why.' There was nothing wrong with the product: 'Every time we were delisted, people would write to us wanting to order Buster Sink Fresh by post.'
Response
Burchell joined the Designing Demand Immerse service. He recalls getting a lot more than he bargained for, including strategic help from the outset. Design Associate Evan Kitsell explains: 'A product and brand mapping exercise showed the product portfolio wasn't well structured and the on-shelf presence wasn't as coherent as that of the competition. Also, Challs was spending time on products that weren't making much money.'
The Challs team decided to focus on their strongest product area – plughole and drain care - and strongest brand, Buster. All but four Buster products were either discontinued or moved into another Challs brand, leaving Buster concentrating solely on cleaning bathroom and kitchen plugholes and unblocking drains.
The design project was a significant risk. Burchell says: 'We committed £40,000, a year's profits (though subsequent work would take the design spend to over £80,000). If anything went wrong we wouldn't get a second chance.'
The Designing Demand Immerse design team helped Challs clarify the brand’s personality and positioning. Then, following a paid pitch, branding and graphic designers Elmwood were hired. As well as packaging and graphic concepts to improve on-shelf stand-out, the designers contributed strategic ideas, says Burchell: ‘It was Elmwood's idea to segment our offering into kitchen and bathroom products'.
Most significantly, the four-strong range became a coherent single offering. Design Associate Fiona Myles said: 'The design emphasised that Buster was a product system and that was something none of the competition had.
Challs still had buyers to convince. Buster Sink Fresh was stocked by John Lewis, Waitrose, Sainsbury, Morrisons and the DIY chain Wilkinson, but Somerfield, Asda and Tesco remained out of reach.
A forceful presentation was created by Elmwood, explaining how more houses with more toilets and en-suites mean more sinks and more domestic plugholes (Challs estimates the UK now has 135 million) and more drains using the same single waste outlet. While the market for window cleaners, for instance, is static, Challs estimates the drain freshening and unblocking market will grow by a third in two years.
The presentation includes video of Kitchen Drain Clear shifting a blockage far more effectively than its Mr Muscle rival. This finally convinced Tesco and Asda. 'They didn't take us seriously before, but now we're seen as credible and professional,' says Burchell.
Impact
Although Challs is a small business up against blue chip rivals, the Buster range is now sold in virtually all national chains. Following the launch of the newly branded and packaged range, sales grew by 35 per cent in 2005 - and in 2006 they are on course to rise by a further 25 per cent year on year.
'We said that getting one product into Tesco or Asda would pay for the design project, but it's paid for itself many times over,' says Burchell.
In late 2005, Aldi UK placed the biggest single Buster order yet, repeating it twice in 2006. This opened the way to negotiations with Aldi in several European countries and the US. Challs also landed new business from Lidl. In addition, the business is looking to adapt Buster for the janitorial market and public sector clients. Says Graham Burchell: 'We're not stopping here. Design has changed our culture and we want more of it. We want to work with designers to find new ways to challenge the rules. Good design will stand the test of time but it doesn’t stand still.'
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Most significantly, the four-strong range became a coherent single offering. Design Associate Fiona Myles said: 'The design emphasised that Buster was a product system and that was something none of the competition had.
Challs still had buyers to convince. Buster Sink Fresh was stocked by John Lewis, Waitrose, Sainsbury, Morrisons and the DIY chain Wilkinson, but Somerfield, Asda and Tesco remained out of reach.
A forceful presentation was created by Elmwood, explaining how more houses with more toilets and en-suites mean more sinks and more domestic plugholes (Challs estimates the UK now has 135 million) and more drains using the same single waste outlet. While the market for window cleaners, for instance, is static, Challs estimates the drain freshening and unblocking market will grow by a third in two years.
The presentation includes video of Kitchen Drain Clear shifting a blockage far more effectively than its Mr Muscle rival. This finally convinced Tesco and Asda. 'They didn't take us seriously before, but now we're seen as credible and professional,' says Burchell.
Impact
Although Challs is a small business up against blue chip rivals, the Buster range is now sold in virtually all national chains. Following the launch of the newly branded and packaged range, sales grew by 35 per cent in 2005 - and in 2006 they are on course to rise by a further 25 per cent year on year.
'We said that getting one product into Tesco or Asda would pay for the design project, but it's paid for itself many times over,' says Burchell.
n late 2005, Aldi UK placed the biggest single Buster order yet, repeating it twice in 2006. This opened the way to negotiations with Aldi in several European countries and the US. Challs also landed new business from Lidl. In addition, the business is looking to adapt Buster for the janitorial market and public sector clients. Says Graham Burchell: 'We're not stopping here. Design has changed our culture and we want more of it. We want to work with designers to find new ways to challenge the rules. Good design will stand the test of time but it doesn’t stand still.'
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